Business
I first met Mike at the School of Communication Arts in London in 1988. We worked together for five years in London trying to make a name for ourselves with limited success. Following a chance meeting with a kiwi in Cancun, Mexico in 1994 we were offered a job at Y&R Auckland. In the end Mike came, I stayed at home, and unleashed from the handbrake of working with me, he went on to be ECD of Mojo, when it still existed; then together with Roger MacDonnell (and others) he started Colenso BBDO on its incredible path to glory, before a lost year at Clemenger Melbourne. He returned to Saatchi NZ and together with Andrew Stone returned the agency to something approaching its former glory. The two of them then left and had mixed fortunes setting up Droga 5 in New Zealand before Mike went out on his own setting up The Collective and Many Minds where he is now. He’s won a million awards for his work, worked with some of the best, and is well known around Auckland for his love of fishing, wearing shorts whatever the weather, and talking in a funny accent.